A Sudden Realization
by She's a Star
Summary: A short post-GoF summer vignette in which Ron discovers his not-quite-platonic feelings for a certain bushy-haired bookworm . . . :-)


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A Sudden Realization 

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by She's a Star

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Author's Note: Harry Potter's not mine, I'm afraid. It all belongs to a certain Ms. Rowling, who has a certain book 5 coming out in a certain 39 days. Ecstatic? Moi? Oh, yes.

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Disclaimer: I wrote this ages ago, not so much because I wanted to post as because I wanted to envision how this conversation would go, but I just came across it and thought it was rather funny (yes, I'm pathetic; I amuse myself), so I decided to post it.

Anyway, this is set post GoF during the summer - Harry's staying at The Burrow, and Ron's dwelling a bit on a certain Know It All. :-)

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"We're having a great time, aren't we, Harry?"

"Erm...sure, Ron."

"A bloody damned good time _without_ her. She can prance off to Bulgaria with that git if she wants to - we don't need her company! _Obviously_ she finds him a lot more bloody important than us. But we don't need her, do we, Harry?"

"Erm."

"'_Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does and not as a last resort!_' Honestly! What the bloody hell was _that_?! Like she thinks I...I _fancy_ her or something! What's she going on about? I didn't want to go to the ball with her! I don't...." Ron paused; a look of utter horror suddenly came over his face. "Oh my God."

_About time._

Sure enough-

"I _do_, don't I?" he asked, aghast. "I _do_ fancy Hermione! I...I...Harry, stop me! Harry, tell me I'm wrong! Tell me I've gone mad!"

"Er...Ron," Harry said, a bit testily, "I think you _do_ fancy Hermione."

"I _do_!" he said, looking as though he'd just discovered the answers to all of the world's secrets. "I...and I don't just _suddenly_ fancy Hermione either, do I?" He looked downright miserable.

Harry shook his head weakly.

"I've...God, Harry, I reckon I've liked her for _ages_!" Ron looked very alarmed. "Since..._when_?!" Looking positively desperate, he asked, "How _long_, Harry?"

"Erm...a while?" Harry suggested weakly.

"The slugs!" Ron howled. "The _slugs_! It made me so mad, and I...you know why I did that, Harry?"

"For Hermione?" Harry inquired.

"For _Hermione_!" Ron exploded. "I didn't want Malfoy to hurt her feelings! I just wanted to _kill_ him, because _no one_ should be allowed to talk to Hermione like that! And...and...when she was Petrified...the spiders! The goddamn bloody spiders! I followed the spiders for _Hermione_!"

Harry nodded.

"And..." Very meekly, he asked, "Harry...I wasn't mad because she was fraternizing with the enemy, was I?"

Harry shook his head. "I reckon you weren't. I reckon you were jealous."

"Jealous!" Ron cried. Harry cringed - perhaps he shouldn't have said that. But no - "I _was_ jealous, Harry! I was going bloody _insane!_ And I've hated Krum, and Lockhart, because...because Hermione liked them!"

Harry nodded again.

Ron now seemed to be ranting madly. "And d'you know what I was thinking about at the ball last year, when Padma got all sulky??"

"Hermione?" Harry suggested delicately.

"Her _hair_!" Ron exploded. "I was sitting there, and thinking about her hair, and _how_ did she get it like that? And I was hoping it wouldn't bloody _stay_ that way, because I...I like her hair the way it is! And if her hair was just all silky, it'd be like she was just going all...normal, like Parvati, or Lavender, and I don't _want_ her to be like that, Harry, because she's _Hermione_! Parvati and Lavender, they're supposed to do that, you know? Because they're girls. They're meant for us to gawk at and stuff. But...but Hermione...she's _different_, ya know? She's...so _intense,_ and smart, and funny, and she's _such_ a know-it-all, and she's _Hermione_! She can't be pretty like them! She's not _pretty_, she's beautiful, Hermione. You know, when her eyes go all bright when she's just understood something, and how her cheeks get all flushed when she's angry, and how she pushes her hair out of her eyes when she's concentrating, and doesn't really give it a thought? And...." Ron suddenly looked painfully aware of what he was saying. "Harry, stop me."

"Stop," Harry instructed obediently.

"Harry," Ron said, very miserably. "I don't..._just_ fancy Hermione, do I? I...it's more than just liking her, isn't it?"

Nodding weakly, Harry said, "It seems that way."

"I...I lo..." 

The tips of Ron's ears had gone red.

"What do you say we go play a game of chess?" he suggested, eyes fixed firmly on his awful orange bedspread.

"All right," Harry agreed, and they went downstairs.

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FIN


End file.
